Bashar al-Assad

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main opponent showed after a brief silence the new tone of the run-off campaign. In a video shared on Twitter, he accused the head of state of "scratching at the door" of Russia and "orienting" towards it, but also that under his watch the government had allowed "10 million illegal migrants" into the country.

A meeting between the foreign ministers of Türkiye, Russia, Iran and Syria is expected to be held in Moscow next month, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on April 10.

"We think it will happen in a period at the beginning of May, according to the preliminary information we received from the Russians. It will be hosted by Russia in Moscow," Çavuşoğlu said in a televised interview.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad in Cairo on Saturday, a first since Syria's civil war broke out over a decade ago, Shoukry's office said.

The deputy foreign ministers of Syria, Turkey, Iran and Russia will meet in April in Moscow, Turkish and Iranian officials said on Tuesday, building on contacts between Ankara and Damascus after years of hostilities during the Syrian war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Syrian leader Bashar Assad in the Kremlin on Wednesday for talks that focused on rebuilding Syria after a devastating civil war and efforts to stabilize the region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad began talks in Moscow Wednesday.

"Dear Mr President, I am very glad to see you in Moscow. Thank you for accepting our invitation," Putin told Assad at the start of their meeting broadcast by state TV. "We are in constant contact and our relations are developing."

Syrian President Bashar Assad arrived in Moscow on March 14, where he is scheduled to meet top ally Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Just to recall, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Syria announced on Wednesday that the country has decided to recognize the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and Lugansk People's Republic (LNR).

One, two, three, stop. Five, six, seven, stop: A group of young Syrian men and women step, sway and twirl to the backdrop of salsa music, dancing their worries away.

For an hour a week in a Damascus studio, their instructor Adnan Mohammed, 42, teaches a class the basics of Latin dancing, helping his students forget the troubles of war - if even briefly.

A bomb attack on an army bus in Damascus killed at least 13 people on Oct. 20 in the bloodiest such attack in years, the SANA state news agency reported.

"A terrorist bombing using two explosive devices targeted a passing bus" at a key bridge in the capital, the news agency said, reporting an initial casualty toll of 13 dead and three wounded.